


Now I Can Find Relief, I Grieve

by desertions



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-18
Updated: 2013-01-18
Packaged: 2017-11-25 22:50:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/643803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desertions/pseuds/desertions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i> It’s not the first time she’s held him like this.</i> spoilers for 4x10</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now I Can Find Relief, I Grieve

Tyler doesn’t know how long they sit there, crumbled on the ground of the gym together, Caroline cradling him to her chest as he sobbed. It’s not the first time she’s held him like this. The first time had been after that first transformation. She had tried to convince him it was okay then too though. But he’s not okay. He’s not really sure he’ll ever be okay again, honestly. 

He doesn’t really remember how he even got to the gym. One moment he had been fighting Rebekah’s compulsion and the next he was giving in (you’d think after breaking a sire bond he could resist compulsion but maybe the truth of the matter is he wanted to give in, he’s tired of fighting when he always loses anyways). He was chasing Stefan and Elena and then he turned, and he saw his mother’s memorial and soon enough he was turning back again. The reality of it grounded him.

His mother was dead, and not because of some _accident_ like Liz had said (he had to leave then, people can call it an accident all they want but they all know what really happened. His mother didn’t get drunk and drown, Klaus _murdered_ her). He was alone. The only Lockwood left. His father died almost a year ago, and Mason not long after that. 

He didn’t lose just his mother that night, but his pack, any chance for a family or a place to belong. He’s never fit in with the Mystic Falls supernatural gang, not really. He’s always been an outsider. And he thought maybe for once he could do right, he could be a leader (a better one than his father or Klaus had ever been) but it’s not in him, he doesn’t know how to lead, how to help. How to do something right for once. And he loses it all. 

So he cries, finally, because there’s nothing else to do. He’s just so hurt and tired and Caroline hands running through his hair, her lips pressing against his skin, her tears mingling with his own, it’s familiar. It’s painful and familiar and comforting. In a weird way it’s the first thing that’s felt like home since all of this happened.

And eventually, he pulls away and she stands up, holding her hand out to him and somehow, he picks himself back up again, trying to shake the rest of it off.

After all, what else can he do?


End file.
